Mother Mary said at Fatima: "My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the sure way which will lead you to God." St. Thomas Aquinas said: "The things we love tell us who we are!" With that in mind, I will try to post each day something about Our Blessed Lady, items about the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and public domain Catholic books too! I pray you enjoy my ministry!
Below are two albums of pictures that I created:
1. Our grand daughter Adrianna.
2. Tears of Mary!

MARY, OUR MOTHER

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Pope Francis Can Call the West Out of the Sandbox of Self-Absorption BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE

As the vernal equinox opens a Catholic Spring, many asked what Catholics hope to see in Pope Francis. Let’s instead ask what he hopes to see in us.

Habemus Papam! In Pope Francis we have a Holy Father who comes to us at the dawn of Spring. This Pope for the New Evangelization opens a new era of the Church, a new era in which the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics would do well to set aside the question of what sort of Pope we want him to be. He is our Holy Father, not our Holy Keeper, and the more adult, less self-absorbed question we might now ask is “What sort of Catholic do I want to be in union with him?”

For some, there is a more fundamental question, the answer to which might seriously streamline the Church and separate the wheat from the chaff. That question is, “Do I want to be in union with him at all?” It’s a basic question posed today to every Catholic, and its answer cannot have integrity if it is divided or qualified. This question of unity might be the most pressing question of this age of the Church. The divisive “sins against unity” described in my post, “The Sacrifices of a Father’s Love” were cited by Benedict the Beloved as one of the most scandalous challenges of his papacy, and of our lives as Catholics.

And yes, they are “our” sins against unity – meaning us, as a Church. As I described two weeks ago in “Sede Vacante: The Sky is Not Falling on the Catholic Church,” we are consumers of a news media that does not report on Catholic dissent and disruption so much as shape and foster it. Without the market for scandal that our culture provides, the secular media feeding off of it would die. The hopeful news, as I pointed out in that post, is that much of the print news media as we know it is doing just that – dying.

I, for one, cannot in conscience enter Holy Week without an answer to my own question about fundamental unity. My answer is simple: Yes, I choose – from the perspective of my humble state in life – to be united in faith and in truth with this Holy Father. With fidelity, deference, and respect, I commit myself to unity with Pope Francis in all matters of faith. Like so many, I am most enthused about this Holy Father.

For me, this is the answer of a Catholic adult, but it didn’t always feel this way. The irony of the question about whether I choose to be in unity with Pope Francis – and the irony of my response – is that some would view it as childish that I might so openly betray the “question authority” mantra of the 1960s to accept in faith the legitimate authority of the Church as my Baptism and Profession of Faith require. My answer comes with a price tag. It requires that I adopt the demeanor of Saint Paul as expressed to the Church of Corinth (1 Corinthians 13:11):

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

What exactly does it mean to follow Saint Paul’s lead on that score? What might it mean to give up childish ways in relation to our faith and our Catholic identity? For one thing, it means that I must entirely free myself from the expectations of the Sixties.

In the 1960s, when it became cool to see myself in opposition to all authority, I was in fact a child. It was the era of Vatican II, and I attempted to describe that era in my two-part post, “Vatican II Turns Fifty: Catholics in an Age of Discontent,” and in Part Two, “Catholics and Culture Collide.” The point I tried to make was that the Second Vatican Council was interpreted then with the perfect storm of social revolution, sexual revolution, and social reorganization sweeping through Western Culture.

Those forces hijacked the Second Vatican Council, distorted its documents through the lens of an entire culture’s adolescent rebellion, and then swept the Church into a hermeneutic of discontinuity and disunity. It is the monumental task of this Pope for the New Evangelization to reinterpret Vatican II for the Church of this time, separated from the cultural tsunami of the 1960s, the era that gave it birth. The Sixties are over. Let’s bury them. God lives, and Nietzsche – who we all so loved to quote back then – is dead!

NOT ALL ARE ABOARD THE BARQUE OF PETER

During the recent period of sede vacante, a few Catholic writers took a break from the media stories of secret Vatican scandals and rumors of the Conclave to have a look at the role of dissent in modern Catholic discourse. Specifically, there was some ire raised by a typically adolescent editorial by Tom Fox, the typically adolescent editor of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR). Father John Zuhlsdorf tackled this in “Dr. Peters v. National Schismatic Reporter.” Bishop Rene Gracida also took it on in “What do the National Catholic Reporter and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ have in common?” Both entries appeared on their blogs on March 1, 2013.

The latter part of Father Z’s title, the “National Schismatic Reporter” is his newest nickname for NCR. There are other pseudonyms – some used with far less dignity – but my own name for NCR is the “National Catholic Distorter.” That one has fallen into disuse, however, because it retains the name, “Catholic” in the title, and undeservedly so. On February 27, the day before Benedict’s resignation took effect, NCR editor, Torn Fox offered up this little gem of reflection to his readers:

“With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow Rome time, his pontificate comes to an end, Roman curial heads resign, and the Vatican shuts down. We all become adults again, at least until we have a new ‘Holy Father.’ “

Note Tom Fox’s use of “scare quotes” framing the words, “Holy Father.” He utters that title with typical tongue-in-cheek fashion, with a wink and a nod to his “trapped-in-the-sixties” readers. The editorial was embarrassingly juvenile. It is a common trait of adolescents to believe that theirs is the only voice in the house worth hearing.

I have an NCR story of my own to tell. When I was a young priest in the early 1980s, NCR was seen as the coolest Catholic thing in print. Among many priests and Catholic leaders, it represented a voice on the left, growing ever further left as the Sixties moved on. NCR saw itself as representing the Church’s social justice arm while independent of any one bishop. By the time I was ordained in 1982, every priest I knew subscribed to NCR. A stack of copies appeared as the sole Catholic newspaper in many parish vestibules in the Northeast where I grew up (or didn’t grow up, depending on one’s point of view). NCR was vastly influential in the American Catholic priesthood. I recall reading back then that it had a subscriber base of 60,000 or more – unheard of for an American Catholic publication.

I first noted a problem with NCR when I found myself at or near the center of some important Catholic news stories. This happened three times in my priesthood, once in the early 1980s, once in the early 1990s, and once again in 2002 when the scandal in the Catholic priesthood was launched nationwide by The Boston Globe (may it rest in peace).

In all three instances, I found that the National Catholic Reporter was not so much reporting on these stories as shaping public perception of them. Many attempts to present another side of these stories were ignored by NCR, or flatly rebuffed, if the facts challenged the editorial positions of the paper. Over the last few decades, NCR has been shockingly one-sided, and offers no apology for that. From a journalistic standard, it presents no news at all, but is merely an extended opinion outlet for only one type of opinion on the Catholic far left. NCR is not at all worthy of its one good journalist, John Allen.

When I was unjustly sent to prison in 1994, two priest-friends thought they were doing me a favor by presenting me with gift subscriptions to NCR. The result was that I received two copies of each issue. I wrote to NCR from prison asking that the two subscriptions be collapsed into one and extended. Some unnamed person at NCR wrote back to me with a suggestion that I simply give my second issue to another Catholic prisoner.

The problem was that I could not find another Catholic prisoner willing to read it. NCR prides itself on what were then “leftist” issues such as prisoner rights. As I attempted to circulate a few copies, the comments I received from other prisoners were remarkable. I kept a short list of representative samples. This is what Catholic prisoners had to say about NCR:

“No thanks! Too negative. I have enough negative in my life.”“Thanks, but no thanks. This is just nasty!”“Wow! This is awful. Does the Church do ANYTHING right?” “What an ugly, nasty, negative paper!”“UGH! Why did you give me this?”“Why are they Catholic if they see nothing good in the Church?”

… and so on and so on. You get the point.

That’s when I cancelled my subscription to NCR. A couple of years ago, some well-meaning person subscribed again for me, and I was shocked at the paper’s obvious decline. In one issue, NCR’s annual Statement of Ownership and Circulation required by the U.S. Postal Service was in such tiny print that it was impossible to read. I took a copy to the prison library and enlarged it. I was thus alarmed to see that NCR’s circulation was a tiny fraction of what it had been in the early 1980s. It made me wonder how and why the paper survives.

I think the answer to that is to be found in the mainstream media. NCR survives today – and barely – solely because the secular media can count on it for a dissenting voice that presents itself as mainstream Catholic. For that end, NCR allows itself to be used as a tool for secularization, disunity, and the diminishment of Catholic culture in America.

I much respect Father John Zuhlsdorf and Bishop Rene Gracida, and they are quite right to engage Tom Fox and NCR with a challenge. There is a new conversation taking place, however, and it requires all our attention and engagement. Dissenting voices have run out of much of their volume and impact – except in the secular press which is dying while fomenting Catholic dissent to its last breath.

In a recent commentary in The Wall Street Journal (“What to Look for in a New Pope,” Review, March 9-10) Catholic writer George Weigel – who I find myself quoting a lot these days – wrote of his hope that this Pope will be “a missionary cultural warrior [who] calls the West out of the sandbox of self-absorption.” Brilliant!

The “sandbox of self-absorption” is the perfect characterization for much of the Catholic dissent that contributes to the sins against unity that so wounded Benedict the Beloved. In America, the National Catholic Reporter has been its mouthpiece. It’s time to leave the sandbox of the Sixties. It’s over!

Editor’s Note: Now that the voting has closed for the Catholicism About.Com Best Catholic Blog Award , we wish to extend our gratitude to those who have voted for These Stone Walls and our congratulations to Father John Zuhlsdorf!

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My wife Marianne suffered a heart attack on March 13th, 2012. On 7/23/2013, she suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for over 3 weeks. On 8/9/2013, Marianne went to the Lord. May she rest in Peace+Deacon John

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Quotes from 'The Glories of Mary':

‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head.’

(Gen. 3:15)

“Since the devil is the head of original sin, this head it was that Mary crushed: for sin never had any entry into the soul of this Blessed Virgin, which was consequently free from all stain.”

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MARY, OUR MOTHER

Mother Mary said at Fatima: "My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the sure way which will lead you to God." With that in mind, I will try to post each day something about Our Blessed Lady, items about the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and public domain Catholic books too! I pray you enjoy my ministry!Below is a slide show of pictures that I have collected: Tears of Mary!

Have a look!

Jeremiah 14:17; 15:18

"Let my eyes shed down tears night and day, and let them not cease, because the Virgin daughter of my people is afflicted with an exceedingly grievous evil. / Why is my sorrow become perpetual, and my wound desperate so as to refuse to be healed?"

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Where Peter is, there is the Church, where the Church is there is Eternal Life

About Me

I'm 80, formally married to Marianne for 52 years, [Marianne passed away to the Lord on August 9th, 2013 after suffering a stroke and two cardiac arrests.] We have 4 children (plus 2 in heaven-stillborn) and nine grandchildren plus 1 Step-grandchild. I'm a Korean War Vet, U.S. Navy; I was a Motorcycle News Courier for U.P.I., and WNEW Chanel 5 TV News, during 60's & 70's; a Lieutenant in the Wycoff Hospital Police in the 90's. I was ordained a Permanent Deacon for the Brooklyn Diocese on April 25, 1987 and served in four parishes before relocating to Florida in 2002. I'm still incardinated for Brooklyn Diocese. There was no parish in my town so we traveled to either Mt. Dora or Eustis for Mass. My oldest son and daughter, John and Anne, lived near us but the rest of the gang are up North in New York and Pennsylvania. We have now relocated to a northern state and my ministry is mostly on the Internet with some blogs and groups. I also assist the pastor at the local Catholic church. I owe my life and conversion/calling to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel de Garabandal, who has brought me to her Son Jesus. I am Their servant and slave! I only want to do the Will of God and glorify the Most Blessed Trinity with my life!

My Friend Archbishop David Milne

PSALM 71 SPEAKS TO MY HEART

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;let me never be put to shame!In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;incline your ear to me, and save me!

Be to me a rock of refuge,to which I may continually come;you have given the command to save me,for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.For you, O Lord, are my hope,my trust, O Lord, from my youth.Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;you are he who took me from my mother's womb.My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many,but you are my strong refuge.My mouth is filled with your praise,and with your glory all the day.Do not cast me off in the time of old age;forsake me not when my strength is spent.

For my enemies speak concerning me;those who watch for my life consult togetherand say, “God has forsaken him;pursue and seize him,for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, be not far from me;O my God, make haste to help me!May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;with scorn and disgrace may they be coveredwho seek my hurt.

But I will hope continuallyand will praise you yet more and more.My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,of your deeds of salvation all the day,for their number is past my knowledge.

With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs,O God, do not forsake me,until I proclaim your might to another generation,your power to all those to come.Your righteousness, O God,reaches the high heavens.You who have done great things,O God, who is like you?

You who have made me see many troubles and calamitieswill revive me again;from the depths of the earthyou will bring me up again.You will increase my greatnessand comfort me again.

I will also praise you with the harpfor your faithfulness, O my God;I will sing praises to you with the lyre,O Holy One of Israel.My lips will shout for joy,when I sing praises to you;my soul also, which you have redeemed.

And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointedwho sought to do me hurt.

Welcome to my Marian Blog

As you can tell from my postings, I'm in love with Mother Mary, who has taken me under her mantle of protection, has taught and led me to Her Divine Son, Jesus; Who in turn has led me, in the Holy Spirit, to the Eternal Father! Two prayers that I say often tell who I am:Come O Holy Spirit; Come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Your well-beloved Spouse.

O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee. My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament.